St. Mary’s earns badminton banner

Times photo by Trevor Busch

By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

St. Mary’s School athletes continue to shine in badminton as both the middle school and high school grades are making their mark.

St. Mary’s School won the 2A high school banner thanks to medal finishes by several athletes at zones.

Single players in Jobert Cruz (silver), Kaleb Muller (silver), won medals in their respective age categories. The doubles teams of Christine Agravante and Guianne Rodrigo (silver), Landon French and Tyson Phillips (gold), and Rae-Ann Vayro and Andrew Meisner (silver) also had top finishes.

“We won the banner accumulating 79 points. That was third overall with all schools. The only two schools that were ahead of them were 4A schools (Chinook and Catholic Central),” said Derry Kolody, who heads up the junior high badminton program, while Randy Spenrath helms the high school program.

All the high school badminton players who qualified except for Kaleb Muller (cycling commitments), will be making the trip to provincials in Edmonton this weekend.

St. Mary’s Junior High will be trying for another badminton banner this weekend. Twenty-two of a possible twenty-eight athletes are attending zones. They are as follows:

Bantam
Jack Murphy
Joey Fabbri
Alyssa Pavka
Kim Badeo
Max Nevil and Ty Kiss
Trista Duncan and Rachel Gouw
Cody McClleland and Allyson Ginther
Midget
Tristan Miller
Kyrsten French
Emmanuel Adra and Dallas Bodnar
Kenzie Pyne and Seth Muller
Juvenile
Rory Murphy
Michaela Meldrum
Carl Rodrigo and Spencer Phillips
Jastine Pidborochynski and Jeremy Venzon.

“There is a lot of interest at the younger levels and it trickles up to high school. There is also the community badminton on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” said Kolody. “A lot of it has to do with the kids buying in, showing up and practising hard. They are doing all the hard stuff and deal with all the pressure. We (as coaches) just sit back,” continued Kolody with a chuckle. “And they are good bunch of athletes and a good group of kids.”